Stay
by VerelLupin
Summary: Love, betrayal, trust and madness. She loved him, he betrayed her, she does not trust him, he is being driven to madness by her. They've walked away from each other and now years later all one of them has to do is stay.
1. Painfully Yours

Hello again...dipping a cautious toe into this story.

I'm starting slow but hopefully you guys will like it.

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She stretched out her arms and wings and instantly recoiled in agony. "My wings! Where are my wings?" She touched the bloody stumps where her wings should be and screamed. '**Why? He loved me.'**

She cried long into the day and the next. Until the days blurred into months and she was empty and cold. Her land became barren and devoid of warmth as she walked along the lonely paths, away from the moor and to the crumbling castle of the old fey king, the one that overlooked the valley and the castle of the human one.

The creatures of the woods ignored her out of reverence then later out of fear as her footsteps uprooted the land and what bounty remained but she paid them no heed until the raven arrived.

She saved it. Maybe to prove that there was still something of the young fairy she'd been, to prove that he had not taken it all when he butchered her.

The bird, Diaval as she named it, became her companion, the one who spoke and listened intently even though she remained silent. He was her wings and more importantly Diaval was her eyes.

The eyes that spied and confirmed the reason for the savagery she'd suffered and her pain was eclipsed only by the fearsome display of power the land saw that night.

Though she was sure Diaval was the only witness to her sorrow, she knew without a doubt that Stefan felt it. He must have felt the ground shake beneath his boots, for despite how far they had drifted, he had become a part of her the night they had lain together.

She enclosed her home with thorns barring him from ever touching any part of her again and it would remain that way until he came back to the moors and she could end him or she went to him and he ended her.


	2. Regretfully Yours

**Thank you to (guest) for your review: **I will do some flashbacks and hopefully flesh out Stefan more than the movie or book did which lacked it and suffered for it, I think. I do really like Sharlto Copley so I could be biased (hee hee)

I know that there is a very small group of people who ship Stefan/Maleficent and I am so glad I can add to it. I appreciate any kind of feedback, good or bad.

Here we go.

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**'Stefan, Stefaaaaan.'**

"No, leave me be."

**'Stefan…Stefan…Stefan.'**

"Quiet damm you."

**'Come…come and talk to us.'**

"Please, I beg of you."

**'Stefan…do not leave us here forgotten. Come…'**

"My lord?" the queen asked as he violently shrugged off the blankets and rose from their bed.

"Go back to sleep." He ordered the startled woman, who watched as he pulled on his dressing gown and exited their room without once meeting her eyes.

The castle was dark, not that it mattered for Stefan had become comfortable in its darkness, he'd learned all its twists and turns while in the service of the former king. He knew it as well as his own skin, as well as he'd known hers, and the room he headed to was as secret to his wife as his still troubled love for the horned fairy.

"Why have you summoned me?" he demanded of the glass case now silent and looming at the other end of the room.

**'We do not summon. We only ask for your attention, we are lonely.'**

"You beg and clamor so that my sleep is disturbed nightly by your voices." He muttered feeling foolish once again.

**'You took us from whence we belonged. It is only fitting that you would become our new companion.'**

"I will not be ordered. I am the King!" he shouted.

The wings lifted and slammed into the case making it tip threateningly towards him. **'You were her guardian, her love. You betrayed her. Now you will be our keeper in her stead, you chose this path!'**

"I could have killed her." He defended placing his hands on the glass that outlined their dark silhouettes and kept them safe. He didn't understand why he kept them safe, he just knew he had to keep protecting them.

**'You should have.'**

The case fell back with a heavy thud and he fell to his knees. "I cannot live like this. I cannot be your guardian. I do not have the ability…it will drive me to madness."

**'Then return what you have stolen. Return us and you will know peace.'**

They fluttered again and he rose tiredly to his feet. **'Let us go, Stefan. Set us free and we will set you free.'** He unsheathed the dagger at his side and cut the ropes holding the glass doors open. **'Give us to her. Take us to her.'**

"I cannot. Do not ask it."

**'Then we will all be prisoners.'  
**

"She hates me." He replied.

**'She hates what you have done. She will always love you as much as you love her. Repair the damage done. Rebuild the trust taken. This is your only chance, Stefan.'**

"Guide me for I no longer remember the forest of my youth."

And guide him they did. Out of the room and down the light and smooth castle stairs and past the window where a pretend pale queen was forgotten to a dark and thorny wood that had once been his home and where his real and vibrant queen, who could never be forgotten, waited to spill his blood.

**'Speak out to her.'**

"Maleficent!"

The woods shuttered but he remained alone. "She will not come," he said defeated.

**'Make yourself be heard. Make her hear you,'** they advised.

"MALEFICENT!"

The trees creaked and twisted aside making way for the lone figure emerging from their dark depths, "what do you seek?"

"I seek you," he replied.

"Are you sure?"

"No," he replied truthfully.

"Why are you here?"

Stefan gathered his courage and stepped into the shadow of the curled thorns surrounding the woman he still loved dearly. "I am returning what I so wrongly took." He'd been within distance of them before but now their mistress could command them and kill him.

She must have thought the same and without thinking stepped into his space, pushing him back away from her twisted woods and towards the safety of his castle. This was not lost on either of them.

"Why would I trust you?" she asked removing herself from his sight and circling him like her damm pet raven often circled his home.

"You need not trust me." He replied and gently laid down the wings in his arms on the ground.

"That is a mistake I will not make again."

Stefan refused to retreat further as Maleficent pinned him with her greens eyes, her form was clad from head to toe in black and her horns casting a long swath of darkness that swallowed and hid them from the moonlight. And yet he thought her more beautiful now when she could cut him down then he ever did back in the days of their youth.

**"Mistress,"** the wings fluttered.

"They've been calling for you." He said quietly.

"You can hear them?"

"Yes, they are persistent," he replied.

"Humans are not supposed to be able to hear them."

"I forged a bond with them…"

"I know exactly when that wretched event took place. I bare the scars of it," she hissed.

He knelt and unwrapped the silken wings and offered them up to her, "allow me to heal the scars. Let me atone for my mistakes."

She took them from his hands, careful that no part of her touched any part of him.

He wanted to say that he would not do her harm again, that his hands had etched paths all over her skin once without hurting her, but her mistrust was rightly earned and he didn't push her further. And from the way she instinctively pulled away he was sure Maleficent wanted no reminder of their time together, though she seemed to forget that she had held power over him as well. No matter how pleasant it began, their interactions could only be flavored with bitterness now.

"You have done what you set out to do," she replied and turned from him, her wings held firmly in her arms.

She did not melt immediately back into the darkness so he once more approached, "you will not seek retribution?"

"Is that why you gave back what was rightfully mine?" Her cloak swirled and the ends of it snapped at Stefan. "You wish to spare your kingdom and your precious queen from my wrath?"

He weathered her storm calmly, he could not retreat. This might be his only chance to tell her what had taken him three years to say. "Neither the queen or my kingdom deserve your wrath, they are both already tied to me. I only wish to know if this is goodbye, I wish to know if we are at an end..."

"We are. Do not venture near my woods."

"If I do?"

"I will not guarantee your safety again."

"Goodbye, Maleficent."

"Goodbye," she said softly and vanished.

**'Worry not, Stefan. We are joined.'**

"That is what I fear."


	3. The Beginning of the Tale

**Guest: I like to give a little variety to the fandom. Thanks for reading even if you do ship something different. Means a lot.**

**artilyon-rand: I agree. I feel that a lot of Maleficent's original love for Aurora came from the love she still had for Stefan. I can't see it develop into something else. I am hardcore Stefan/Maleficent so I will try to add a little more to them. I will be more in depth with their mental states, especially since I feel the cutting of her wings scarred both of them.**

**bookafashion: I will try to update as much as possible. Struggling through the book to get a better feel for Stefan's character but it is difficult to not go to OCC since there's so little to work with. **

**Shipper: Thank you. I have lots of ideas and hopefully they will keep me writing.  
**

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"Mistress? Do you want me to follow him back?"

"No, leave him be."

"Do you-"

"Leave me be as well."

"Yes, mistress."

Maleficent halfheartedly changed him back to his feathered form, not caring if he followed her edict. She did not care about keeping an eye on the king…not yet. She was still too raw from their encounter.

She lovingly stroked the wings in her arms, marveling that they looked no different than when he'd cruelly cut them from her three years ago.

**'He'd heard them; he'd kept and cared for them, Why? He could have easily burned them, destroyed them. Why keep them? Why risk it?'** But those weren't really the questions she wanted answers to. **'Why had he returned them? Could it be? Did he care still?'**

Maleficent waved aside the sentiment. She could not start believing in fairy tales again, couldn't walk that path again, not after what it had cost her. Diaval would keep an eye on the king and his new bride, it was necessary to know what he planned for the moors.

Too many of his allies still wanted the moors, he wouldn't sway them simply because he'd felt guilt. Stefan-King Stefan was not the boy she knew, he wouldn't be ever again. This man would not risk his power to help her. No she would have to keep an eye on him, she would have to ensure that he did not cause her or her people anymore harm.

Diaval was patiently awaiting her return and though he bowed, Maleficent could see the stiffness in his body even as a bird. She could keep him like that for a time to not hear his obvious but unwelcome observations.

But if she did, he would tire of being ignored and he would no doubt snap his beak at her or spread his feathers annoying close to her face until she gave in and let him say his piece. It was times like this that Maleficent wondered why she kept the insolent bird around.

She sat down on her throne, adjusted the folds of her dress and laid the precious wings on her lap. Only after she was comfortable did she finally transform him. Diaval shook his own coat before doing another mock bow and immediately began bending her ear, as she knew he would.

"Why did he return them?"

"I do not know, I was asking myself that very question."

"He said he heard them. Is that possible? I had believed only fey could hear magical…" he glanced at the wings "…things."

"'Tis true, it is a rather rare human that can communicate with magic so effortlessly."

"He doesn't seem the type, milady."

"I suppose not." Maleficent replied stroking the wings as if looking for an answer.

Apparently Diaval must have had the same thought for he too glanced at the wings and bade them to give up their secrets. "May I?"

Maleficent allowed him to run a finger down one soft black feather and his own cloak shook in response. "They say he spoke to them."

"He said that."

"They say he spoke to them nightly. He visited them, spent many hours conversing."

"About what?" Maleficent asked curious but worried they would reveal the origin of their bond with the now king.

"They will not say and I will not pry."

"Yes, that is best." Diaval stared at her and she glanced away from his curious gaze and to the castle, his castle.

"Would you like help?" he asked softly as she stood and eyed the wings before her.

"My cloak, I need you to hold it."

He nodded and she undid the broach holding the material until only the loose tunic she wore beneath remained. He caught it before it hit the ground at the same time as she twisted and placed the jagged edges of the wings over the protruding bones sticking out from her back.

They both heard the shark click of the bones fusing together but the sudden weight of her restored wings caught her off guard and she dropped to her knees. "I am alright," she said as Diaval bent to help her but she waved his helpful hand away, choosing to sit as she flexed the newly repaired wings.

Diaval watched with professional fascination as she experimentally stretched the right wing, lifting it straight back then forward and finally upwards in a graceful arc. Maleficent repeated the motion several more times before she did the same with the left.

"I had forgotten the weight of them."

Satisfied she slowly moved them back and forth until she rose a few feet from the ground. She hovered for a moment but the wings were fatigued and her energy was depleted from concentrating so much magic to their healing.

She collapsed to her knees again and the long dark wings folded neatly behind her. "My cloak, Diaval."

He handed her the cloak and she draped it over the front of her as she rose carefully with the help of his arm. "Are we returning to the moor?"

"No, I need to rest. We will stay here."

"There is no roof over this castle, if it were to rain, we'd be soaked to the bone in minutes."

"I have enough magic for that." Maleficent quickly constructed a roof, pulling fallen stones and adhering them to the nearby walls and pillars until a comfortably large room was formed.

"I will start a fire, you must rest."

She sighed in acceptance and propped herself up against the dry wall while Diaval collected wood and made a fire pit which Maleficent lighted. The fire was warm and soothing and the cool stone felt delicious against her soft feathers.

"I knew Stefan as a child." Maleficent began.

Diaval no doubt would have protested to letting her tell this tale, saying she was much too physically exhausted to tell some emotional draining story, but for once she felt like talking.

And with the rain he'd theorized about already falling, they were going to have to stay for the whole of the night and there was naught else to keep them occupied.

"He entered the moors and stole from us." Maleficent said pushing at the fire with a stick and he saw how her eyes softened in recollection.

Diaval may have been a raven but he'd observed humanity enough to know what love and betrayal looked like and the king and Maleficent had it written on their faces in spades. Especially whenever one chanced a glance at the other.

"He was rotten even then."

Maleficent laughed but it was missing all the sharpness of her usual laughter. In the year he'd been with her, Diaval could honestly say he'd never heard this particular version of it.

"He was misguided…I was called and immediately demanded he return whatever he'd stolen."

"What was it?" he asked getting into the story.

"I don't recall. Gems from the pond or gold from the wood perhaps. He returned it and shook..." Maleficent looked down, "…my hand." She lifted her hand to the fire, illuminating the delicate fingers. "He burned me."

Diaval looked at her fingers and saw the discoloration on her third and fourth fingers. "Iron."

"He wore a ring of it. I cried out in pain and he apologized. I explained what iron was to us fey folk and he took the ring from his finger and flung it towards the old king's castle."

"Why is that so important? He should have known better than to enter the moors with man made metal."

"It wasn't a weapon. He was ignorant to its use. It was the only item of value he had and he threw it away…for me." Maleficent looked at Diaval. "He threw it away because it hurt me, we'd only known each other a few hours. I didn't ask it of him, I never asked anything of him and he did so much-"

"It is late, my lady. We should retire."

Maleficent stared once more at her hand then doused the fire angrily and turned on her side so as not crush her wings. "Goodnight, Diaval."

"Goodnight, Mistress," Diaval replied but he did not sleep. He could not.

He feared for her, for his lady, for the queen of the moors that had saved him from an angry farmer. He saw what it took her to walk away from the king tonight, saw how she hesitated at the wall of thorns.

He saw how close the king had gotten to touching her and he couldn't say with any assurance whether Maleficent would have stopped him.

Diaval also saw what it cost her to tell this story tonight, to see her unraveling their pasts perhaps looking for that glimpse of the man she must have known. He worried that the return of her wings would be her undoing.

He had no idea what history those feathers carried but he knew enough about the lore to know that bonding of a mortal and any fey was for life. They would feel each others emotions if the bond was strong enough and he had a sinking feeling that Maleficent and the king's acquaintance did not end in childhood.

He feared that it had crossed the bounds of poetic love and into the more physical realm of man and if that was how the king had bonded with her...Maleficent might start losing not just her powers but also her very immortality.

Diaval wouldn't rest until he knew for certain what their story entailed and for that he would have to spy on the king once again. He would have to find out if the king's marriage was a love match or not.

"Diaval?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."


	4. Old Memories

**This is short but the next is gonna be a monster chapter so I just cut it off here.**

**Thanks for all the reviews. It makes me so happy to know that the whole fandom doesn't hate Stefan.**

**I think he was so misguided and just let the guilt overtake him.**

**Anyway...Enjoy**

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"_Can I come back?" Stefan asked._

"_As long as you don't steal anything else. I can't let it go a second time." Maleficent scolded._

"_Will you be here?"_

"_Of course, where else would I be?"_

"_I don't know. I don't always spend the night in the same place."_

"_Why not?" _

"_I don't really have a home," he explained._

"_That's terrible."_

_He shrugged. "It's not so bad. So when can I come back?"_

"_You ask a lot of questions," she said._

"_Why do you keep answering them?"_

_She shrugged, "I've never talked to a human before."_

"_Why not?"_

"_They never want to talk to me," she responded._

"_I'm not like that."_

"_I know."_

"_I've never talked to...you're a fairy right?"_

_She nodded._

"_A good one," he declared it but still looked at her horns suspiciously._

"_Of course I am. Why do I look bad?" she caught his look and touched her horns. _

"_No but your horns are different. I've never seen anything like them," he said and his hand almost reached out to touch them._

"_I'm the only one of my kind." _

"_You're special," he said._

"_Thank you," she replied._

"_You're welcome," he said and began making his way home, at least for the night. Maybe the castle cooks would have something for him to do and he would get to stay inside by the fire._

_The thought of the kitchen fire for some reason made him think of Maleficent and he turned to see if she was still there watching him._

_It surprised him to see that she was still standing at the edge of the moors, her wings wrapped around her. The sun glinted off her horns and as she smiled and waved, Stefan felt a warmth spread through his body that would have rivaled a thousand nights spent by the fire._

_Except unlike those fires, this once wouldn't burn his clothes or make him smell like whatever was being cooked and this fire had something else he was sure he'd never felt before._

_Stefan shook his head to clear it and the crisp soon to be cold night air seeped through his thin clothing as he waved back and shouted, "I'll see you soon."_

"_Okay," she shouted and he watched until she was safely out of the wind before he made his way home while visions of fires and Maleficent intermingled through his mind. _

"My lord?"

King Stefan turned and looked at the queen at his side. He didn't want to compare but it was so difficult not to especially after having seen the real Maleficent and not just the ghost from his memories.

"You are far away."

"Am I?"

"More and more of late." The queen timidly touched his shoulder. "What bothers my king so?"

He shrugged her hand off him gently, it felt wrong but it was wrong to not want her touch.

However his encounter with Maleficent had left him too aware of who he still loved and desired. The woman before him would know loyalty but his heart was not his to give and until he reconciled with that, baring her touch would have to be done in darkness.

"_It's much too cold here," he whispered into her hair._

"_We are covered by a blanket of stars," she whispered back._

He'd traded real love and happiness for the love of a crown and the fragile queen doing her duty to his office and not him was what he'd chosen. He could not taint their marriage or their bed anymore than he did nightly in his dreams because he'd been greedy.

**'Was this was how I have always been?'**

His queen nodded as she always did and he felt even lower than ever. He hurt her and he had no idea how to stop or if he could to change things. **'After all this time, is it possible to love another? Can I let her go.'**

_'Set us free and we will set you free.'_

**'I returned her wings and faced her. I can change, I will change. I must.'**

"Miranda, forgive my absences. I've many things on my mind."

"Heavy is the head my king but should you want for anything. I am here," she replied and departed the throne room. He watched her leave him to his demons and wondered when exactly he'd acquired this woman's affection and why.

He shown her very little kindness and yet his queen tried to be at his side. ** 'I will strive to be the man you both believed me to be.'**

Stefan knew that what he was planning could cost him dearly, but despite what Maleficent thought of him, he was not evil. He had no intention of bothering her or the inhabitants of the moors, but he did need to know if there could be a real peace forged between himself and his former Fairy love.

He gave instructions that he did not wish to be disturbed and headed to the east tower, where he'd witnessed that terrible green storm she'd unleashed three years ago.

**'The night you abandoned her.'**

It seemed his conscience was trying to make up for lost time and even with his own guilt eating at him, he hoped now that he'd reunited her with her wings that she would think a bit more kindly of him. He didn't need her to forgive him, he just wanted her not to hate him.

He was not naïve enough to hope that her love for him had been rekindled. He could offer nothing in return but more pain, regardless of what he felt, he had a kingdom and wife that were his life now, he could not forsake them for his own desires, not again.

He glanced towards the old fairy castle and wondered if she was there now. He certainly doubted she was thinking of him at all, much less fondly remembering their time together like he was but then he'd never stopped loving her.

"_Have you ever fallen?" he asked._

_Maleficent descended and alighted on the branch above him. "Once."_

"_Were you hurt?" Stefan asked and pulled himself onto the branch where she perched._

"_A little. A gust of wind caught me off guard. I hit the falls and cut my shoulder."_

"_Where?" he asked._

_She shifted her hair to the right and showed him a faint scar on her shoulder blade._

"_I wish I could have caught you," he said quietly and pressed a kiss to the spot._

"_It doesn't hurt anymore." _

"_I know." he kissed it again and she blushed._

"_Stefan, its late."_

_The teens looked at the glowing sunset and jumped down from the tree._

"_I don't want to leave you," he said pulling her into his arms._

_She leaned her head against his chest and slipped her arms around his waist, "stay."_

"_Will that be all right?"_

_She looked up when he dropped a kiss on her horns. "Its okay with me."_

"_Where would I sleep?"_

"_With me," she replied shyly. _

"_What an honor you give me." _

"_I love you, Stefan."_

"_And I you, Maleficent, with all I am. Everything I own is yours, little though it may be."_

"_I need nothing but you by my side," she said and her wings wrapped around them._

"_If my lady desires it."_

"_She does."_

Stefan was once more pulled from his memories, this time it was the insistent squawking of Maleficent's pet raven that interrupted.

"I wondered when I would see you again," he said to the bird.

The bird bowed but it was abrupt as if the bird was mocking him, given whom it belonged to, Stefan wasn't offended. A little mockery was the least Maleficent could have done even if she was feeling charitable.

"Is your mistress near?" he asked and the bird shook its head.

"So this is to be a short conversation."

The bird huffed and impatiently clicked its beak. Stefan clearly couldn't understand him and his puzzled look only served to exasperate the bird further and he clicked more furiously.

"I'm afraid I don't speak bird."

The bird motioned to the king and pointed his beak over and down the castle wall.

Stefan moved toward the edge and looked where the birds beak still pointed. It was a direct view into the castle garden. "The garden, what about it?"

The raven clicked its beak and pointed more insistently, so much so that he almost slipped off the ledge of the tower.

Stefan reached for it but the animal righted itself and carefully positioned itself close to him so that it could press his beak to Stefan's face and turn it where the animal wanted him to look.

He saw the garden again but felt the bird's beak push on his jaw and he looked further left. Hidden by several large sunflowers was a bench, where a young queen sat.

"The queen? That's what you wanted to show me?"

The bird clicked excitedly.

"I do not understand," Stefan said.

The bird snapped at him harshly then clicked its beak twice.

"She is my queen not my love."

The bird nodded as if he'd answered whatever question it been asking. It stretched out it's wings and stood in front of Stefan, tilting its head as if it was studying his face.

"I'm not worthy of either of them.."

The bird bowed deeply and took off, leaving the him to ponder why he'd bother to make the distinction. Miranda was tied to him in all ways but one and Maleficent's ties to him had been severed by his own hand. Why dwell on what could not be?

**'But why did the bird visit then? I assumed she'd sent it, so why was Maleficent concerning herself with me or my kingdom now?'**

Perhaps he would have to make one more trip to the moors and ask her himself.


End file.
